


Piqué Turns

by rsadelle



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Kid Fic, M/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-17
Updated: 2015-01-17
Packaged: 2018-03-07 21:29:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3183815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rsadelle/pseuds/rsadelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three summers, three days.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Piqué Turns

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Idahophoenix](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Idahophoenix/gifts).



> For Idahophoenix, who asked for kidfic.

**May 2023**

Segs just out his chin when he opens the door. "Did someone call and tell you I can't handle it so you'd better get over here?"

"Nope." Tyler sticks his hands in his pockets. "Just heard you were in town, wanted to say hi."

Segs deflates. "Sorry, man. Too many naptime power struggles." He hugs Tyler and lets him in. "It's kind of a mess."

It is, but Tyler's not the least bit surprised, so he ignores it. "Should I not ask how you're handling it?"

Segs makes a face. "My mom's told me three times that I should have hired a nanny for the summer and Wally laughs every time he sees me." Segs sinks down onto the couch, and Tyler sits at the other end of it. "Fuck, this is exhausting."

"It's been like a week," Tyler points out. "Think of it like training camp."

"What the fuck would you know about training camp, you retired asshole?"

Tyler chuckles. "You think it's not that much work for coaches until you are one."

Segs asks about that, seeming to appreciate the subject change, and they catch up for fifteen minutes until a small voice yells down the stairs, "Daddy, can I get up now?"

Segs sighs and looks up at the ceiling, then calls, "Yeah, princess. Come downstairs. We have a visitor."

There's as much clatter as a five-year-old can make coming down a carpeted staircase, and then Emma yells, "Uncle Brownie!" and flings herself at Tyler.

Tyler lifts her up and kisses her cheek. "Hi, Emma girl."

Emma hugs him tightly and then squirms out of his arms and onto the floor. "Come see my room. Everything is different because Mommy and Daddy don't live together anymore."

Tyler throws a sympathetic look at Segs' pained grimace, and lets Emma drag him up the stairs to see her room. It's not that much different from what he remembers it looking like last year, before Segs and Victoria got divorced, but he lets Emma tell him about everything that's new or different.

By the time Emma takes him back downstairs to show him her "big girl bicycle," the place is a little neater, and Segs is in the kitchen cooking.

"Are you staying for dinner?" Segs asks.

Emma tugs on Tyler's hand. "Pleeeeease stay."

"Yeah, sure," Tyler says.

It's Emma's job to set the table, and she tells Tyler seriously, "You don't have to help. You're a guest."

"Are you practicing your skating?" Tyler asks her when she's done and they're waiting for Segs to finish making dinner.

Emma shrugs. "I go skating sometimes, but I want to be a ballerina."

"A ballerina, huh?" Tyler asks, and he does his very best not to laugh at Segs ending up with a kid who wants to be a ballerina.

"Yes! Watch." Emma proceeds to do what Tyler assumes are some ballet moves. He doesn't know enough to judge how well she's doing, but he claps when she's done.

"I'm going to be a famous ballerina someday," Emma says. "And people will want to watch me dance like they watch Daddy play hockey."

"You're going to have to eat your dinner now," Segs says as he puts food on the table. "So you can grow up strong for dancing."

"I'm going to be the strongest dancer," Emma says. Between eating, she tells Tyler, "I go to the gym with Daddy," and, "I get to go to dance class tomorrow," and, "I Skype with Mommy every day until I go see her for Fourth of July."

"She talks a lot," Segs says after he sends Emma upstairs to get ready for bed.

"Just like you," Tyler chirps. "You're taking her to the gym?"

"Yeah," Segs says. "She's fine, there's childcare and kids' classes. If she gets bored, I'll find something else for her to do."

"You know," Tyler says slowly, "you don't seem like you can't handle it."

Segs crumples. "I feel like I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. Victoria was always around, and she made sure we had our shit together."

Tyler pulls Segs into a hug. "You seem like you're doing fine."

Segs clings for a second, then takes a shuddering breath and steps back. "If I can just make it through this first summer, I can do it, right?"

"For sure."

Tyler goes upstairs with Segs to tuck Emma in and read her a story.

"You should come over all the time," Emma says to Tyler. "Daddy's happy when there are people here."

 

**June 2024**

"Well," Tyler says when Emma gets tired of the beach, "I guess we could go to my parents' house," like that wasn't the plan all along. "Do you want to see the house I grew up in?"

Emma perks up. "Yes!"

They bundle everything into Segs' car and drive over to Tyler's parents' house.

"We're here," Tyler calls into the house.

"Hi, honey." Mom comes out of the kitchen and hugs Tyler, and then Segs. "Hi, Emma."

Emma half hides behind Tyler's leg. "Hi, Mrs. Brown."

"Honey, it's okay if you call me Cheryl," Mom says. "I'm cutting up watermelon. Do you want some?"

Emma loosens up a little after Mom sits her down at the kitchen counter and gives her a watermelon slice, and pretty soon she's telling Mom all about kindergarten and how "I'm going to be in first grade this year."

They have lunch when Dad gets home from the round of golf he was playing, and Emma falls asleep on the couch after.

"We can keep an eye on Emma," Mom says, "if you boys want to go do something without her."

Tyler shrugs at Segs, because it's his call.

"Let's just go swimming," Segs says.

They head out to the back yard and spend a little time splashing each other like they haven't had the chance to in a long time.

"I'm glad you're spending so much of the summer with us," Segs says when they've settled down a bit and are just enjoying being in the water. "Probably more fun for you this year now that I've got my shit together."

"You weren't so bad last summer," Tyler says.

"No, but I was freaked out," Segs admits.

"You're definitely more chill this year," Tyler agrees.

Segs splashes him a little. "You're getting better side benefits this year too." He leers at Tyler like he might miss his meaning.

Tyler half smiles at him. "That's better this year." He drifts a little closer to Segs. "Maybe you should've taken your mom's advice and hired a nanny this year so we could enjoy a little more of those side benefits."

Segs laughs and looks toward the house before ducking in and kissing Tyler quickly. "I'll get a babysitter one night this week and come over to your place."

Tyler grins at him, then moves back a little so there's a respectable amount of space between them by the time Emma wakes up and comes outside to join them in the pool.

Emma insists that Segs and Tyler lift her up over and over again "like a grownup ballerina" and shrieks with delight every time they drop her from their lifts into the water.

Emma gets tired of that game eventually, and they splash around for a while longer before Segs decides it's time for them to get back to Toronto.

"But, Daddy, I'm having fun," Emma whines.

"I know you are, princess, but it's time to go." Segs gets out of the pool, and Tyler follows him to help back up his parental instruction.

Emma pouts for a minute longer, but when Tyler and Segs ignore it, she gets out of the water and lets Segs wrap a towel around her.

"Let's go say thank you to Uncle Brownie's parents," Segs says, "and then we'll go home." He pushes Emma's wet hair back. "You have ballet tomorrow."

As usual, any mention of ballet makes Emma brighten up, and she's smiling when she thanks Mom and Dad for lunch and watermelon and letting her swim.

"You're very welcome," Mom tells her seriously. "Come visit us again."

"I will," Emma says confidently.

Segs chuckles, like she didn't learn that self-assurance from him.

Segs is a good judge of Emma's limits, she chatters for a few minutes in the car, but then she starts to droop.

Before she falls asleep entirely, she says, wholly unprompted, "I love you, Uncle Brownie."

Tyler looks at Segs, who shrugs like that's Tyler's to respond to, before he looks into the back seat at Emma half asleep with her towel wrapped around her. "I love you too."

 

**August 2025**

"Let's go," Emma says, dragging out both syllables. "I can't be late."

"We're not going to be late," Segs says. "And you need to wait until Uncle Brownie and I put on our shoes."

That doesn't actually take that long, and then they're out the door and Emma is practically vibrating with excitement in the back seat of the car.

"Is she always like this?" Tyler asks Segs when they get to the theater.

"Yep," Segs says.

"Must have learned it watching you on game days," Tyler says, and gets hip checked for it.

"Daddy, Uncle Brownie, _come on_ ," Emma says, and it's one of those seven going on thirteen tones Segs likes to sigh over.

"We're coming," Segs says.

"I want you to meet my teacher," Emma says to Tyler.

"He can meet her after you dance," Segs says. They get into the building, and Segs points Emma in the direction that the sign points dancers to. "Go on. We're going to get good seats so we can see you."

Emma hugs them both quickly before catching up to another girl in pink tights and a black leotard.

"This is a lot of people for a recital," Tyler says when they get into the theater and are picking out seats.

"It's a pretty big dance school," Segs says, "and there are parents and grandparents and everything." His parents are there, holding down a row with his sisters and stepsisters, and Segs and Tyler go down the row hugging everyone before they take the pair of seats Segs' family saved for them.

"Have you been to one of these?" Cassidy asks Tyler.

"This is my first one," he says.

"I hope you don't hate it," Cassidy says brightly. "You're going to be seeing a lot of them."

Tyler doesn't hate it. He doesn't know much about what's going on with all the different kinds of dance, but he doesn't hate it, and he keeps his eyes glued to Emma when her class comes on.

"Is it just me," he asks Segs quietly between Emma's class and the next one, "or was she actually better than most of those kids?"

"Actually better," Segs murmurs back. "Her teacher in Dallas wants to move her up with an older group, and we're probably going to let her this year."

Emma comes to find them after the performance, and she goes from adult to adult to get hugged and told how great she was.

"Did you like it?" she asks Tyler anxiously.

"I did," he says, and he hugs her tightly. "And you were awesome."

She smiles up at him brightly, and then tugs on his hand. "You have to come meet my teacher."

Segs comes along, and Emma stops in front of an older woman who holds herself with elegantly poise.

"Miss Shannon, this is my Uncle Brownie. He's coming to live with us in Dallas, but I'm still going to stay with Mommy when Daddy's on road trips so I can see her too."

Segs chuckles. "That was a lot of information, princess." He shakes Miss Shannon's hand.

"Brownie?" Miss Shannon asks Tyler.

"Tyler," Tyler answers, "but," he shrugs and gestures at Segs.

"Ah," Miss Shannon says. "It's very nice to meet you."

"You too," Tyler says. "Emma talks about your class all the time."

"Emma is a great student," Miss Shannon says, and she smiles at all of them. "We'll look forward to having her back next summer."

Emma flings herself into a hug with Miss Shannon, and then has to spend some time saying goodbye to all of her summer ballet friends since the recital marks the end of her classes before they move to Dallas for the fall.

"Uncle Brownie," Emma asks in the car on the way home, "are you going to come to my performances in Dallas?"

"Yes, I am," Tyler says.

"Daddy can't always come," Emma says, "because he has games. And then Mommy is the only person there for me. Will you come when Daddy has games?"

Tyler pats Segs' knee because he knows that's making him feel guilty. "Yes, of course I will."

"Okay, good," Emma says. "You don't have to sit with Mommy."

Tyler doesn't bother stifling his chuckles, even when Segs heaves a sigh and shakes his head.

Emma's still wound up when they get home, but Segs sends her to change into her pajamas anyway, and then Tyler goes up with him to tuck her in.

"I'm glad you're coming to live with us in Dallas," Emma says when Tyler kisses her cheek.

"Me too," Tyler says. "I'm going to get to go to all your recitals now."

"Yes," Emma says with a smile. "And be with Daddy."

Tyler looks at Segs. "Yeah," he says, "and be with Daddy."


End file.
